Mumbai City has recorded the highest number of paediatric TB cases in the last five years. According to the data, there were 3,109 paediatric cases in 2021 which further increased to 4,523 last year, a rise of 45.48%.
However, the cases kept on increasing from 2,178 which was recorded in 2018, followed by 3,692 in 2019 and 3,882 in 2020.
Doctos attribute increase to lockdown
Doctors have attributed this surge to the pandemic as children were not going out due to which there was very limited contact.
“City was under lockdown due to which schools, playing grounds were shut and children were not allowed to venture out which made them more susceptible to infection in families with active TB patients. Thus, we can see more paediatric patients post-pandemic,” said a paediatrician.
Study finds 52% of patients transmit TB to kin
BMC's TB department had undertaken a 'break the chain campaign' for which they conducted a study which showed that nearly 52% of the TB patients transmit to their kin.
7.656 households were screened by the civic body of which around 3,950 latent TB cases were detected since July 2022.
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